Here are a list of great things to do in San Antonio this weekend.
#1 – New sounds and tastes are standard operating procedure at the Texas Folklife Festival; this year’s 46th edition is no exception. Vietnamese pho noodles have been added to the menu, while dance and musical groups Das ist Lustig, Trepet: Ridna Shkola Ukrainian School of Houston and Levendia Greek Folk Dancers augment an always eclectic entertainment lineup. And the fest looks to the future, too, courtesy of demonstrations from high school robotics teams.
#2 – At the Drive-In arrives for a sold-out show with its new album “Inter Alia,” which Rolling Stone called stadium-sized anarchic rock. Led by singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez, the refreshed act (reunited without guitarist Jim Ward) blisters with its Fugazi-inspired intensity and kinetic energy. Bixler-Zavala is nonstop onstage on new numbers “No Wolf Like the Present,” “Holtzclaw,” “Hostage Stamps” and Incuarably Innocent.” Teri Gender Bender’s Mexican garage-rock act Le Butcherettes opens the show with wild and sexy numbers “Bang” and “Sick Of You.”
#3 – After two consecutive weekends of playing John Williams’ movie music, the San Antonio Symphony becomes the backing band for a circus act. Cirque de la Symphonie, which played the Tobin Center during its inaugural season, is back for more stunts that laugh in the face of gravity — acrobats, aerialists, cyclists, jugglers and more. All this aerial mayhem will be choreographed to the symphony’s classical set list. Associate conductor Akiko Fujimoto, who’s bound for the Minnesota Symphony in two months, will conduct.
#4 – AtticRep’s International Fest of Theatre is up and running. There is one more performance of “Snapshots of a Fervid Sunrise,” a piece by an Indian ensemble. Then there’s the second production, “On the Porch with the Lavens: How Music Shaped a Family,” a new show about the San Antonio-based family band. The show was written by Rachel Laven, who is part of the family, and Jacob Pursell. Roberto Prestigiacomo directs.
#5 – Saturday’s and Sunday’s Outdoor Theater concerts at the 46th Kerrville Folk festival will feature remembrances of two certified singing-songwriting legends — Guy Clark (who died in 2016) and Townes Van Zandt (New Year’s Day, 1997). Final weekend highlights also include San Antonio’s Rachel Laven participating in a concert of 2016 New Folk winners Friday, and Radney Foster (pictured) as the final performer Sunday before the traditional closing-night performance of the festival’s anthem, Bobby Bridger’s “Heal in the Wisdom.”
#6 – The Southern rock quintet from Tyler is still celebrating the September release of its latest album on its 2017 Mud Tour, as well it should. “Mud” debuted at No. 4 on Billboard’s country chart, while the summer single “Lightning Bugs and Rain” topped the Texas Regional Radio Report chart. The band’s current single, “Stone,” a stark ballad of life on the road, is in the Top 20.
#7 – Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling is teaming up with chef John Herdman of Sustenio for a whiskey dinner. Herdman has paired dishes made with local ingredients, such as mesquite-grilled Bandera quail, with whiskeys and bourbons from Ranger Creek. Reservations can be made by phone.